Transcript Unicorn 2004

The Web Enhancement Forums
Gabriele Popp,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
EUUG, University of Bath, September 2003
Why this presentation?
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Libraries change
Our demands on Unicorn change
System needs to change with us/for us
Sirsi constantly develops system
How can we influence this change and make
sure that our voices are heard as part of the
system development process?
What am I going to talk about
 Sirsi Perspective
(from Unicorn Enhancement Process by Berit Nelson &
Karen Albright, Sirsi Super Conference, March 2003)
 Web Forums as part of enhancement process
 How the Forums work
 How to use them
 Live demo session
What drives development of
Unicorn
 Prospective customers, i.e. Sales
 Industry-identified needs, e.g. standards
organizations, advances in technology
 Custom programs
 and Web Enhancement Forums.
Interaction between Sirsi and
Customers
 1 - 1: Individual customers and Sirsi
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Sales and other meetings
Helpdesk calls
 more to 1: Customer groups and Sirsi
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User Groups
Webforums
Forum cycle
 Sirsi Corp: Site and software management
 User groups: Decide what forums they want
 Customer volunteers: Moderate forums, i.e.
coordinate discussions and turn suggestions
into enhancement requests
 Sirsi & Moderators: Discuss enhancement
requests
 Sirsi: Implement or reject enhancements
The Forums
16 Specific Discussion Groups on:
 Functionality, e.g. Acquisitions, Reports, or
 Software components, e.g. iLink, Hyperion
 Each group has 2 forums: a General
Discussion Forum and an Enhancement
Forum
Forum Moderators
 Acquisitions: Su Cleyle, Memorial University
 Cataloging: Gary Charbonneau, Indiana University
 Circulation: Sylvie Szafranski, Martin County Library
System
 iBistro/iLink: Janet Young, Hurst Public Library
 Reports: Spencer Anspach, Indiana University
 Serials: Mark McCallon, Abilene Christian University
 System Administration: Holly Gordon, Texas State Library
 Z39.50: Slavko Manojlovich, Memorial University
Discussions
Customer enters suggestion and starts
discussion, which may reveal
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what you want to do is achievable
available in later version of Unicorn
has already been done by somebody else
can be done in another way
is a unique problem specific to your own site!
If it is something many other users support, it
will be moved to enhancement forum
Polling
 Moderator reformulates the suggestion
(sometimes with clarifications)
 Turns it into an enhancement request
 Puts it up for a vote
 You can vote
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Yes (with weighting of high, medium or low
importance)
No
and add comments
Review process
 Sirsi review requests on a periodic basis (currently
ca. once a year)
 Requests are ranked by the number of ‘Yes’ votes
 Sirsi posts response back to forum saying which
features will be added and for which release an
item is scheduled
 Sirsi update existing suggestions when the feature
has been implemented
 or explain why an enhancement request has been
rejected.
Why some don’t make it
Enhancements get refused by Sirsi, if
 there is an easier way to accomplish requested
capability
 change that is requested would “undo” previously
balloted change
 forum comments indicate as many negative
ramifications as positive
 there are several “no” votes
 the request isn’t possible in the current
development platform, but may still become
available in the future.
Example from System Admin list
(Holly Gordon, List Moderator)
 To turn a suggestion into an enhancement, it
should have about 5 support messages
 Once it reaches clear consensus, it is put to
vote
 Message sent to the list that an enhancement
is up for vote
 Once or twice a year Sirsi and her go over
status of enhancement requests
Then...
 Sirsi say how many new enhancements they
can take
 Holly picks most popular ones and posts
shortlist to the list for comment
 Shortlist sent to Sirsi
 Sirsi respond on what they can and cannot
do, and by when
 Results and status gets reported at UUGI
Forum success stories
Acquisitions
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ISBN validation (2004)
Circulation
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Sort checkout displays by due date or title
(2004)
OPAC
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Save items to iBistro/iLink “shopping cart” for
entire session (2003)
More Successes ...
Reports
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Delete reports as a group (2004)
Schedule reports on a yearly basis (2002)
Serials
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Sort checkins on “expected” and “received”
tabs in ascending/descending order (2004)
System Administration
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ALLTools toolbar (2002)
How to take part
 Sirsi assigns one root user id and password
for each new customer, usually to the
System administrator = Super User
 Root login can Create, edit and remove
users, and change their password
 Super User signs up staff at their own site
NB Super User needs to create own personalized
user id to participate in forums
Access control
User logins control
 Access to customer pages or “Client Care”,
for release notes, etc.
 Subscriptions to SirsiTalk lists
 Registration to participate in Web Forums
Passwords
 System automatically creates temporary
password as part of user registration
 On first login user will be prompted to
change password
 Password must be at least 6 characters long
and can’t be a dictionary word
 Password will automatically expire every
three months
Who to contact
If you are System administrator for your site,
contact
 Sirsi Corp: email [email protected]
 Sirsi UK: Steve Fletcher at
[email protected]
If you are not the root user yourself
 Speak to your System Administrator
Sirsi communities
Once registered you can participate in
 Sirsi Talk lists
 Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
 Web forums
Specific discussion groups
Sirsi Talk lists (currently 20) based around
 Functionality, e.g. Acquisitions,
Cataloguing, System Administration, or
 Special Interest Groups, e.g. Law, Public or
Special Libraries
Where to go for what
Urgent questions or need for immediate
response to a problem => Go to lists
New features and improvements => Relevant
General Discussion Forum
Requests for enhancements => Relevant
Enhancement Forum
How to use the forums
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Create a new post
Reply to a post
View a thread
Vote
View polling results
Search through previous discussions
User features
 Edit your profile, e.g. create signature,
change display
 Subscribe to receive forum summaries by
email
How to find them
Forums can be found under Client Care at
Sirsi Corp website
http://www.sirsi.com/uhtbin/custinfo
When you get back
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Find out or renew your root password
Get your Super User to create your login
Set-up email notices
Look at the enhancements and
VOTE!!!